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‘The Conservatives believe by looking after a few big firms and individuals at the top, everyone else will be OK,’ said Mr Miliband.

But, far from being the preserve of business, the contracts are being routinely used by charities, the public sector and the Labour Party itself.

It emerged that 68 Labour MPs had also signed up researchers and other staff on zero-hour contracts in the last two years including shadow health secretary Andy Burnham (right) and shadow chancellor Ed Balls (left)

The Labour politicians said they had been told by the Parliamentary expenses watchdog to use the contracts in order to pay a living wage.

Freedom of Information requests found 22,000 zero-hours contracts were handed out by Labour-run councils, including Doncaster (pictured) where Mr Miliband is standing for MP

Tory chairman Grant Shapps said: ‘It’s the same old hypocrisy from Ed Miliband.

'On the day he generates a load of hot air about zero-hours contracts it emerges that his party is one of the most prolific users of them.

‘It’s chaos in the Labour Party that would cause chaos for the country. Ed Miliband’s not up to the job because he says one thing and does another.

CITY 'FEARS POLL VERDICT'

A hung parliament could send financial markets into a tailspin and the pound and shares crashing, experts warned last night.

Sterling has already fallen nearly 5 per cent against the US dollar in the past five weeks amid jitters about the outcome of the General Election. George Buckley of Deutsche Bank said: ‘The 2015 General Election is set to be the most unpredictable for nearly a century. There may be no good outcome for investors.’

David Buik, of stockbroker Panmure Gordon, said: ‘Markets are incapable of dealing with uncertainty.’

'If you can’t trust him on the basics you can’t trust him to lead the country.’

'Labour did nothing about zero-hours contracts during its 13 years in power, and now we learn that Labour MPs and councils use them routinely.’

The spotlight was also turned on a number of startling claims made by Mr Miliband yesterday – whose speech worsened already bad relations with big business.

His suggestion that Britain has an ‘epidemic’ of zero hours contracts was rubbished by official statistics from the ONS.

The ONS had explicitly warned the 697,000 people who reported having a zero-hours contract between October and December 2014 should not be compared with the 586,000 in the previous year.

The UK’s official statistician said: ‘It is not possible to say how much of this increase is due to greater recognition of the term zero-hours contracts rather than new contracts.’

However, Mr Miliband still made the claim the centre-piece of his headline grabbing announcement yesterday.

The organisation Full Fact said the Labour leader’s claims were unjustified.

The Tories say they have tightened the law to end abuse of zero-hours. Employers can no longer insist on ‘exclusivity’ deals which ban staff from working for other firms. Last week David Cameron said he could not live on an ‘exploitative zero-hours contract’.

Chancellor George Osborne made similar comments last night, saying: ‘Of course it would be very difficult … There are some zero-hour contracts that people want.’

Christian May of the Institute of Directors said Labour’s plans ‘go too far’.

Matthew Irvine, associate at the law firm Thomas Eggar, said: ‘To many this will seem an eye-catching and attractive policy with Miliband championing workers rights over capitalist employers who are putting profit above workers’ welfare. The risk, however, is that this proposal goes too far and would endanger the continued economic recovery.

‘In reality, employers may well choose to dismiss workers before they reach 12 weeks or be reluctant to offer work in the first place.

LABOUR LEADER ED MILIBAND'S EMOTIVE STATEMENTS: CLAIM VS REALITY

Yesterday, opening up yet another front in his war on business, Ed Miliband pledged a Labour Government would ‘end the exploitation of zero-hours contracts’. Here. JAMES SLACK sorts the Labour leader’s emotive claims about the contracts from the very different reality.

CLAIM: We have an epidemic of zero-hours contracts in our country.

REALITY: According to the Office for National Statistics, between October and December last year a total of 697,000 people said they were employed on zero-hours contracts in their main job. This represents only 2.3 per cent of people in employment – or one in every 43 workers. This hardly constitutes an epidemic.

CLAIM: There has been a 20 per cent increase in the last year alone.

REALITY: It is true the number of people reporting they were on a zero-hours contract rose by 110,000 in the year to December 2014, but the ONS says the two sets of figures are not comparable. In some cases, they will have been on the contracts for years but only just become aware of the fact… because Miliband had spent so much time talking about them. Labour was warned by statisticians not to use the figures – but carried on regardless.

REALITY: Far from inflicting untold misery on the majority of workers, by making it impossible for them to make ends meet, 66 per cent said they did not want to work more hours. Only one in ten on zero-hours contracts said they would like a different job. The average number of hours worked was 22.6 per week. Almost one in five were in full-time education, which would make it hard for them to work any more hours even if they wished to.

CLAIM: The Tories won’t end the exploitation of zero-hours contracts. We will.

REALITY: Last June the Conservative-led Government took action to ban so-called exclusivity deals which prevented people on zero-hours contracts from working elsewhere. Labour’s record, by contrast, is nothing to boast about: Tony Blair promised in 1995 to ban them after it emerged they were used in UK fast food chains but his Government failed to act in three terms in power.

CLAIM: If it’s not good enough for us, it’s not good enough for you. One rule for all.

REALITY: Mr Miliband said he could not survive on one of the contracts – but plenty employed by Labour councils and officials have to do so. Some 68 Labour MPs are reported to have employed staff on the contracts over the last two years, including Ed Balls, Mr Miliband’s parliamentary bag carrier Karen Buck and his election chief Lucy Powell. Meanwhile, Freedom of Information requests show Labour-run town halls are responsible for 21,798 of the contracts – including 300 in Doncaster, where the Labour leader is seeking re-election as the local MP.

CLAIM: The Conservatives believe by looking after a few big firms and individuals at the top, everyone else will be OK.

REALITY: It’s by no means only big business that appreciates the flexibility the contracts can provide. A survey of employers by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found that a third of voluntary sector organisations used zero-hours contracts, along with a quarter of public sector employers. The figure for private firms – once again the target for an attack by Mr Miliband – was only 17 per cent.

PS: Even the ever-meddling EU does not object to zero-hours contracts. Despite intense lobbying by Labour MEPs and the party’s trade union paymasters, Brussels has opted to stay out of the row. It insists only that workers should not work more hours than permitted by the Working Time Directive and should be entitled to any holiday rights they have accrued.